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Swaminarayan Bhashyam
A Sanskrit commentary on the Prasthanatrayi which established Swaminarayan's teachings / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Svāminārāyaṇabhāṣyam) is a five-volume Sanskrit bhashya, or commentary, on the Prasthanatrayi (Prasthānatrayī) - the ten principal Upanishads (Upaniṣads), the Bhagavad Gita (Bhagavadgītā), and the Brahmasutras (Brahmasūtras) - which establishes the principles taught by Swaminarayan as perceived by the BAPS.
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Swaminarayan Bhashyam | |
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![]() The Swaminarayan Bhashyam 5-Volume Commentary | |
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Religion | Hinduism - Swaminarayan |
Author | Bhadreshdas Swami |
Language | Sanskrit |
Acharyas, including Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, and Vallabha, all wrote commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi to establish their own school of thought. Swaminarayan did not author a Sanskrit commentary himself, but he interpreted Hindu texts in discourses found in the Vachanamrut.
The Swaminarayan Bhashyam establishes the following: the five metaphysical eternal entities (jiva, ishvara, maya, Aksharbrahman, and Parabrahman), the ontological distinction between Aksharbrahman and Parabrahman, the exposition of spiritual knowledge (brahmavidya), and the means to liberation through identifying with Aksharbrahman and exclusive devotion to Parabrahman. Bhadreshdas Swami's commentarial work is the first Vedanta commentary to bring forth Swaminarayan's philosophical teachings within the school of Vedanta.
In 2005, after the completion of his Ph.D. in Sanskrit, Bhadreshdas Swami, an ordained monk of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, was instructed by Pramukh Swami Maharaj to author Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi. The commentary was completed and presented to Pramukh Swami Maharaj on 17 December 2007 in Ahmedabad during the BAPS Centenary Celebration. Bhadreshdas Swami holds a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Karnataka University and was awarded a D.Litt and Mahamahopadhyaya honorific by Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University in 2010 for the Swaminarayan Bhashyam.
On 31 July 2017, the Shri Kashi Vidvat Parishad (Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad), a council of specialists recognized throughout India for their expertise in Vedic literature, acknowledged Swaminarayan's darsana (view, philosophy) on the Akshar-Purushottam distinction as a distinct view within Vedanta. The council also recognized Bhadreshdas Swami as an acharya in line with Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, and Vallabha, and as the only Sanskrit scholar in history to write both a commentary on the Prasthanatrayi and a vadagrantha, a Sanskrit text which offers systematic exposition of and justification for the philosophical principles found in the Swaminarayan Bhashyam.
In 2018, at a plenary session of the 17th World Sanskrit Conference in Vancouver, Canada, professor Ashok Aklujkar also acclaimed that Swaminarayan's Akshar-Purushottam distinction is a separate darshan within Vedanta.